Fellowships

Bertha Justice Fellows

We train the next generation of social justice and movement lawyers by funding two-year Fellowships at the best public interest law centers around the world, where emerging lawyers receive practical training from renowned professionals.

At any one time we are funding over 100 Fellowships at 17 partner organizations spanning 154 countries.

Explore the profiles of current Bertha Justice Fellows and the global network of Bertha Justice Partners:

Cross-Jurisdictional Collaboration

Three Bertha Justice Network partners - the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (Germany) the Center for International Law (Philippines) and the Human Rights Law Network (India) - collaborate on pesticide litigation which in 2015 led to a submission of complaint with the Food and Agriculture Organization and a petition for criminal investigation at India's Ministry of Agriculture.

Convenings

Bertha Justice Convenings

We host and facilitate convenings of Bertha Justice Fellows and lawyers who are part of the Bertha Justice Network to promote comparative learning, exchange and collaboration.

Bertha​ ​Justice​ ​Initiative​ ​Convening​ ​2017,​ ​South​ ​Africa

Bertha Justice Initiative Convening 2016, South Africa

Bertha Justice Initiative Global Convening 2014, South Africa

Global Convenings

Global convenings aim to facilitate a sense of solidarity and cohort across the Bertha Justice Network, while providing learning opportunities, inspiration and encouragement for Bertha Justice Fellows' long-term engagement in social justice and movement lawyering.

Network-Driven Exchanges

Through our Educational Exchange Fund, we enable Fellows, Alumnx and Partners to convene to discuss legal issues of common interest and to connect in ways that support social justice and movement lawyering.

Women’s Working Group Gatherings, Philippines and Germany

In September 2017 and October 2014, women lawyers from across the Bertha Justice Network came together at Bertha Justice Partners in the Philippines and Germany, respectively, to share their experiences as women human rights defenders and develop strategies to better support women in the Network. The inaugural meeting of the Women’s Working Group resulted in Unbowed, a collection of letters and poems by women of the Bertha Justice Network.

Educational Exchange on Strategies for Transnational Defence of Community Rights, Mexico

Bertha Justice Partner, ProDESC, hosted Bertha Justice Fellows and Partner lawyers from seven different countries in Mexico in July 2015, to share legal strategies for defending community rights to land, territory and natural resources against abusive practices of multinational corporations.

Comparative Learning on Protecting and Defending the Right to Education, India

In May 2015, lawyers and Bertha Justice Fellows from South Africa's Equal Education Law Centre visited India to participate in a workshop on the "Justiciability of the Right to Education in the post-2015 Development Agenda" and to engage with grassroots organizations on methods for undertaking research, engaging in advocacy work and conducting litigation around the right to education.